Saddam rumor true?

Small wonder. We buy their products manufactured @ 25 cents per hour, then expect them to buy ours while we demand $20/hr. Ain't gonna happen!

Harold

When will the Virgin Sacrifice be held? Assuming you can locate a virgin....

Got to love the Druids.

Gunner

'If you own a gun and have a swimming pool in the yard, the swimming pool is almost 100 times more likely to kill a child than the gun is.'" Steven Levitt, UOC prof.

Ask the question about pet meds on misc.survivalism. There are several well written FAQs about using such, and actually written by doctors. Its quite common and for the cost reason, particularly when many meds have a shelf life and one wants to stock up..the cost of finding a friendly doctor every 3 yrs to write a scrip for antibiotics is horrendous, not to mention the human price of the meds themselves.

Gunner

'If you own a gun and have a swimming pool in the yard, the swimming pool is almost 100 times more likely to kill a child than the gun is.'" Steven Levitt, UOC prof.

Well it looks like we've finally come full circle. That's exactly why many jobs are being shipped overseas - so we can use their 25 cent/hr labor to produce products that they can afford to buy (And to make goods sold to Americans less expensive as well). Even if the products are produced overseas and sold overseas, much of the profit still flows back to the US stockholders.

When comparing $.25/hr vs. $20/hr you need to keep in mind that 25 cents per hour is good money in a country where the average per capita income is $400 per year. Simply quoting a per hour wage comparison is meaningless if you don't also look at the comparable costs of living where those wages are paid.

RS

But at the expense of jobs being lost here, jobs that are not being replaced. Highly skilled trades are quickly being lost due to the low to non-existent demand, thanks to foreign production. I think we'll live long enough to regret what we've been doing in that regard. At some point we must become competitive with other countries, although I still don't understand the mechanics of that happening.

Agreed. The only problem is I don't see these poor people spending a huge portion of their yearly income buying an item made in the States at our prices, so we aren't, and won't be, selling our overpriced items to them. I think that's my point. I don't suggest I have a solution, but the US long ago priced itself out of the production markets, and in no small part do I blame unions, management and greedy workers that want more than they contribute. If it weren't for agricultural products and high tech industries, particularly defense, I don't think we could compete with other countries in any way. The way I see it, aside from agriculture, it's only a matter of time until we lose what little we have left..

Harold

prescriptions

Yeah, we buy a lot of our pharmaceuticals at Costco, too. Big savings.

Ed Huntress

Orthodox or Reform?

Gary

He cannot be orthodox as in the days of the original druids there were no written records. Modern druidism is just fantasy started around the eighteenth century.

How about one of those passed down in the family thingies?

Gunner

'If you own a gun and have a swimming pool in the yard, the swimming pool is almost 100 times more likely to kill a child than the gun is.'" Steven Levitt, UOC prof.

Ha ha. Actually I come from a long line of non-religious folks. You could say that the oral tradions are strong. My dad actually recalls going to 'sunday school' where he was required to learn bible verses.

He recounts that none of the boys really took an interest in the topic, until the teacher said that the boy who learned the most of them would get a prize.

The prize was: a BB gun! After that things picked up a bit in the class.

Jim

================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================

|>Just heard on the radio (NPR) that we are having the economy growing at the |>greatest pace in 20 years. | |Ha, that must've stuck in their liberal throats on the way up :o) (having to |admit that)

Maybe they are trying to change their image. I heard a good story this week on NPR investigating the allegations that Haliburton landed Iraq windfall contracts because of Dick Cheny. They thoroughly and completely debunked it, concluding that Haliburton got the contract because they knew how to do the job, had the resources, experience, manpower etc to get the job done and could start immediately. No other company fit the bill. Speaking of Bill, they also noted that Clinton also chose Haliburton companies for Bosina contracts, without a bidding process, simply because they were the best - perhaps the only - choice. Rex in Fort Worth

After two thousand years plus I wouldn't guarantee to be word perfect.

I only spoke about drug costs for humans vs animals. Drug costs are (according to PhRMA) 10% of American medical expenditures. I agree that medical costs are out of hand. I suspect the medical profession is like the public school system, where they have more administrators than teachers.

Paul K. Dickman

I don't have time to look up cites for this right now...however, it looks like the liability issue (on an overall basis) is more of a red-herring issue to keep the populace from looking at the real cause of high medical costs.

I'll give an example that happened around here last summer...foot x-rays performed at a clinic attached to the local hospital were billed to another clinic to handle which were billed to a third location to "read" which were billed from the same hospital where the x-rays took place. A big circle with each transfer taking a cut of the pie and jacking the cost. The same thing often happens (or at least used to) with those military "cost plus" contracts....run the costs up by circular billing because in the end, you just get to add a percentage to the higher cost and can't be questioned..."we only take this tiny fair profit...why are you complaining???"

Koz

That's just BS. They're often still in the sealed drug company packaging when they are re-imported. Besides, Canada isn't exactly a third world country. They police their own pharmacies at least as well as the US does.

What's actually going on is that the FDA is protecting their turf, and they're protecting the excessive profits their buddies at the drug companies are gouging from US customers.

I've used veterinary medicines for 35 years. I've saved thousands of dollars, and gotten exactly the same medicines I would have gotten if I'd bought them at a pharmacy with a prescription.

This isn't something people should do without knowing what they're doing, of course. Generally, people shouldn't act as their own doctor. Let the professional figure out what's wrong with you and what medicines you need. Just don't buy them at a pharmacy at inflated prices.

There are standard books, for example the Physician's Desk Reference, which will tell you the active ingredients in the name brand meds, and allow you to figure how to get the correct dosage with what's available at the farm co-op store. You *will* save a ton of money.

Gary

Something we can both agree on.

Gunner

'If you own a gun and have a swimming pool in the yard, the swimming pool is almost 100 times more likely to kill a child than the gun is.'" Steven Levitt, UOC prof.

It's a case where the regulated industry, and the arm of the government that is supposed to *do* the regulating, are simply in bed together. The second is simply to beholden to the first, to rock the boat.

Jim

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............

Interesting - can you give some examples of "farm store" drugs that are suitable for human usage??

Laurie Forbes

Ok, here's a very partial list:

penicillin, tetracycline hydrochloride, streptomycin sulphate, terramycin, chloramphenicol, hydrocortisone acetate, isopropamide iodide, prochlorperazine edisylate, neomycin sulphate, erythromycin thiocyanate, glyceryl guaiacolate, sulfamethizole, nitrofurazone, phenylbutazone, roxarsone, sulfachlorpyridazine, sulfadimethoxine, plus a huge variety of wormers, flea powders, topical ointments, and liniments.

Gary

'If you own a gun and have a swimming pool in the yard, the swimming pool is almost 100 times more likely to kill a child than the gun is.' Steven Levitt, UOC prof.

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."